Google Wallet Head Osama Bedier Quits

Osama Bedier, the head of Google Wallet, has quit the company after two years in charge in which the solution has failed to gain widespread appeal.

Osama Bedier, the head of Google Wallet for the last two years, has quit his job at the company, Google confirmed following reports yesterday of Bedier’s decision. The statement said that he is leaving Google to “pursue other opportunities.” This news comes after two years in which Google Wallet - like the other major wallet solutions - has failed to gain widespread adoption, and several important Google Wallet staff left the project last year to join other mobile payments startups.

Google hired Bedier away from PayPal in 2011, and PayPal subsequently filed a lawsuit against Google and Bedier, according to published reports.

Google Wallet launched a cloud-based version of the solution last year that could be linked to Visa, American Express and Discover cards in an attempt to gain wider consumer appeal. But the solution has still failed to take off, partly because only one mobile carrier, Sprint, supports the solution. The other major mobile carriers, AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, have developed Isis, a wallet solution that competes with Google’s.

Bedier said at the Open Mobile Summit last November that no mobile payments provider has yet developed a solution that would have universal reach and appeal among customers, according to published reports. “Nobody today is delivering any solution that will get scale, including me,” he added.

Jonathan Camhi has been an associate editor with Bank Systems & Technology since 2012. He previously worked as a freelance journalist in New York City covering politics, health and immigration, and has a master's degree from the City University of New York's Graduate School ... View Full Bio